Posts Tagged ‘human rights’

An exciting portal to navigate humanity

Sailing uncharted waters, we bring to you the last voices of Gaia! Sailing Beyond Knowledge is a community portal created to explore the evolving consciousness of humanity. In it, we have discussions with visionaries, ecologists, travelers, indigenous people, shamans, healers, artists, writers & creative individuals from all walks of life around the world.

Sailing Beyond Knowledge is a venue to learn about interesting adventures and stories from people that we meet on our sailing voyages, circumnavigating Central and South America & various island communities. Our goal is to bring to you people who want to share valuable insights captured while navigating through chaotic times and mapping a new sustainable future for humanity, as we make a transition from dependence to independence, community & self sustainability in balance with Earth.

Hosted from the ocean by a passionate & competent environmentalist

Carlita is an Environmental Biologist, Artist & Qigong practitioner who has interviewed, met and been inspired by some of the most powerful speakers, movers and shakers in environmental & humanitarian issues, scientists, eco-warriors, earth healers, rainforest experts, sustainability engineers and human rights campaigners such as Rex Wyler, the founder of Greenpeace, Nick Gordon, George Monbiot, John Pilger & many more.

She is the founder of several international environmental not-for-profit organizations and is currently working on myriad sustainability projects in Central America, but in this particular project, Carlita is leading during her sailing voyages. In addition to this, Carlita has taught environmental education and created recycling projects with rural indigenous people in Guatemala. Lastly, she is a regular participant at the European and World Social Forums, has been a Greenpeace activist and continues to dedicate her life’s work to sustainability, human rights and the preservation of biodiversity on planet earth.

Unicef released some very interesting- and disturbing- data about violence, exploitation and abuse in children. The information relates to UNICEF’s Child Protection Strategy, which was approved in 2008, and lays out the strategic actions needed to build this protective environment.

The Strategy is centered around: strengthening child protection systems, including the set of laws, policies, regulations and services needed across all social sectors; promoting social change that is consistent with human rights principles; and strengthening child protection in emergencies.

Recapitulating some of the released data, it is estimated that:

Between 500 million and 1.5 billion children are estimated to experience violence annually. In each year as many as 275 million children worldwide are estimated to witness domestic violence.

Certain groups of children are particularly vulnerable to violence, including children with disabilities, children belonging to minority groups, children living on the streets, adolescents in conflict with the law, and refugee, displaced and migrating children. Generally, boys tend to be at greater risk of physical violence and girls face greater risk of neglect and sexual violence and exploitation.

As of 2007 worldwide, more than 60 million women aged 20–24 were married before they reached the age of 18.

An estimated 250,000 children are involved in conflicts around the world. They are used as combatants, messengers, spies, porters, cooks, and girls in particular are forced to perform sexual services, depriving them of their rights and their childhood.

In 2005, for example, estimated that 980,000 to 1,250,000 children – both boys and girls – are placed in a forced labour situation as a result of child trafficking.

This is just a small part of the information offered in the report, but should be enough of a wake up call for all of us to get involved and fight for our children’s rights.

FOUR YEARS. GO. would like to bring to you a message from Avaaz. Avaaz.org is a 5.5-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decision-making. (“Avaaz” means “voice” or “song” in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; their team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages.

Dear friends,

A massive online campaign by the Avaaz community in Brazil has just won a stunning victory against corruption.

The “clean record” law was a bold proposal that banned any politician convicted of crimes like corruption and money laundering from running for office. With nearly 25% of the Congress under investigation for corruption, most said it would never pass. But after Avaaz launched the largest online campaign in Brazilian history, helping to build a petition of over 2 million signatures, 500,000 online actions, and tens of thousands of phone calls, we won!

Avaaz members fought corrupt congressmen daily as they tried every trick in the book to kill, delay, amend, and weaken the bill, and won the day every time. The bill passed Congress, and already over 330 candidates for office face disqualification!

One Brazilian member wrote to us when the law was passed, saying:

“I have never been as proud of the Brazilian people as I am today! Congratulations to all that have signed. Today I feel like an actual citizen with political power.” — Silvia

Our strategy in Brazil was simple: make a solution so popular and visible that it can’t be opposed, and be so vigilant that we can’t be ignored.

This victory shows what our community can do – at a national level, in developing nations, and on the awful problem of corruption. Anywhere in the world, we can build legislative proposals to clean up corruption in government, back them up with massive citizen support, and fight legislators who try to block them.

France’s Le Monde called our “impressive and unprecedented petition” campaign a “spectacular political and moral victory for civil society.” And while this victory may be a first, we can make it the precedent for global citizen action.

Amazingly, our entire Brazil campaign was made possible by just a couple of Avaaz team members, serving over 600,000 Avaaz members in Brazil. The power of the Avaaz model is that technology can enable a tiny team to help millions of people work together on the most pressing issues. It’s one of the most powerful ways a small donation can make a difference in the world.

5.6 million of us are reading this email — if a small fraction of us donate just $3 or $5 per week, or 50 cents per day, the entire Avaaz team will be funded and we can even expand our work on corruption and a range of issues. Click below to become a Sustainer of Avaaz and help take our anti-corruption campaigning global:

We’ve seen the heart-wrenching movies about street kids and desperate urban poverty in Brazil, and we know that across the world political corruption preys on our communities and saps human potential. In Brazil, our community has helped turn the tide and usher in a new era of transparent, accountable politics. Let’s seize the opportunity and begin to fight corruption everywhere it’s needed today.